Sunday, 21 March 2010

JA: How much do you remember about the audition process for Caprica and being cast in your role?

MA: I was very hesitant about doing it because I get really nervous in auditions. I also had to get my wisdom teeth pulled in a couple of days. So I was dreading it but also thinking "I have to do this." So I went in and did the audition, and then a couple days later I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I got an infection and my whole face started to swell- for a month I couldn't talk or eat. They wanted to see me for a callback and I wasn't able to go. They had to trust the tape when they hired me, and I couldn't speak until about four days before we started filming the pilot.

JA: Take us through an average work day on the set of Caprica.

MA: Some days you'll come in and do one scene, other days you'll be there for an entire day. The crew works so hard because they are there every single day, and they work very long hours. I usually get there around 6:00AM, get into my trailer and have breakfast, then go and get my hair and makeup done, then get into wardrobe, get your mic, and do the blocking. To get ready for work, I always go to my trailer and put some kind of music on and dance spastically. It's just one of my morning rituals right before I have to do any kind of acting. It's a really boring process when you try to explain it, but it's fun! I love it.

Matt Mitovich talked to Alessandra Torresani. The complete article is on Fancast.

Can any amount of preaching by papa – or gun barrels targeted at loved ones – make Zoe step forth? ‘Caprica’ star Alessandra Torresani is skeptical.

“At this point her father has done so much, she’s not going to let him have [closure],” says the actress. “They’re the same person – and because of that they butt heads – so the more he tries, the more she’s not going to give in.”

Events are unfolding quickly, though, as ‘Caprica’ speeds toward its cliffhanger-filled midseason finale. As such, “It’s almost too late” for Zoe to make her presence known, Torresani admits. That said, she allows for a possible “change of heart” by her alloy-clad alter ego at some point down the road.

How much of an impact do you think that Battlestar Galactica and Caprica have had on modern sci-fi television?Ron Moore: That’s really hard to say. I don’t know.David Eick: We were so busy cribbing from others that it’s been hard to keep track of who we may have begat. Our touchstones were the greats: [Robert] Heinlein, Philip K. Dick and the movies of Ridley Scott, not just the science fiction ones. I think we were fortunate to figure out a way to apply some of that aesthetic to a modern TV show. I haven’t been able to pay attention enough to what else is on out there to see what we may have inspired.Ron Moore: To me, the biggest and most important impact is that Salma Hayek had a “Frak” T-shirt when she was on 30 Rock. That was a major score because that’s the one they put in the time capsule.

Ron, I saw you speak last year at the New York Television Festival and reminisce about your later years with the Star Trek franchise and how formulaic it got. How hard is it to stay as original as possible with your storytelling on Caprica, especially after four seasons of Battlestar, and to keep the mythology fresh?Ron Moore: I think you’re always trying to avoid clichés just as a storyteller. I think within the Battlestar universe the smartest thing we did was we developed Caprica while Battlestar was still going, so we were able to make sure that we carved enough blank space for the back story on Galactica to give ourselves a lot of room. So as a consequence there are not huge plot grids that we have to keep tying into. The continuity is not so densely packed that we have to make all this stuff line up. It feels very free, that Caprica can be whatever it wants to be.

And here is another interview with the cast at The Paley Center that contains a few interesting details about the rest of the season.

Both Esai and Sasha (who plays Sam Adama, brother to Esai's Joseph Adama on the show), were taken aback after reading the script to the finale of "Caprica's" first season.

"Our finale is unbeliable," Sasha revealed. "It's so powerful that I remember me and Esai calling each other after reading the script. We were both absolutely floored by how it ends."

Esai said the season finale script made him emotional.

"The finale drove me to tears on various occasions," he said. "What happens is so profound and out of the blue. [It was] so unexpected it took my breath away."